VEGETABLE DIET. 165 



some other metals, in vegetables and lead, copper, etc. in animals and 

 man. Silica and alumina are also found in organized bodies. The 

 latter is much eaten, indeed, by some people of the east and of South 

 America. Vegetable charcoal is composed of charcoal, volatile mat- 

 ter and calcined ashes, in somewhat different proportions, according 

 to the nature of vegetables ; but of this, as a product, we have already 

 spoken. 



Carbon is a prominent and necessary element in all living bodies, 

 and consequently of all food. It is an important and chief constitu- 

 ent of the embryo and food of plants and animals. It averages about 

 40 per cent, of the chief vegetable alimentary substances, and of some 

 fats and oils as high as 79 per cent. It is consumed in different pro- 

 portions according to the circumstances of persons. An adult with 

 moderate exercise consumes daily about 15 oz. adv. This is given 

 out by the lungs and the skin in the form of carbonic acid. It is 

 therefore assumed that 6 grs. of carbon combine with 16 grs. of oxy- 

 gen to form 22 grs. of carbonic acid. 



Exclusive vegetable diet has long and strongly been maintained, but 

 it may not be out of place here to say that neither an exclusive vege- 

 table nor animal food is to be recommended, as it is beyond reasonable 

 doubt that the organization of man is calculated and evidently designed 

 for both. The 12 canine and lesser mollar teeth correspond to those 

 of the carnivora, while the 20 incissor and larger molar teeth corres- 

 pond to those of the herbivora ; it is therefore certain that our organs 

 of mastication are intermediate between these two classes of animals. 

 This is equally apparent in the organs of digestion and the length of 

 the alimentary canal, by which man is fitted for, and obviously de- 

 signed to inhabit any part of the earth. But although thus organized, 

 it is certain that both kinds are not indispensable to health and growth. 

 Vegetable food cannot be obtained in cold northern regions, nor is ani- 

 mal food much required or desired in tropical climates. It is, there- 

 fore, apparent that man, in the temperate regions particularly, is em- 

 phatically omnivorous. It happens, too, that a due proportion of both 

 animal and vegetable life there exists. But was man from infancy to be 

 confined in this climate to either animal or vegetable food, all his 

 mental and physical powers would undoubtedly be fully developed ; 

 nevertheless, if a mixed diet should be abstained from at an intermedi- 

 ate period of life, and animal or vegetable diet exclusively adhered to, 

 neither nutrition nor organic developement will be complete. Innu- 

 merable facts and experiments, and the most rational deductions prove 

 this ; so that man by nature, habit and circumstances, is omnivorous. 



The quantity of oxygen consumed, and of carbonic acid produced, 

 by an adult male in respiration during 24 hours is, of oxygen consumed, 

 not far from 45,405 cubic inches, or 15,751 grs.; but about 5000 inches 

 of this is employed in oxydating other matter. Much depends, however, 



